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Exhibition Baroque – the Wonderful Technique
of André Charles Boulle

From 26 May, 2002

 

Currently the Clock Museum in Klaipeda hosts three exhibitions from the cycle ‘Past, Present and Future’: The Building of the Clock Museum in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries‘, ‘The Clock Museum from 1979 until 1984-2004’ and ‘Baroque – the Wonderful Technique of André Charles Boulle. The latter exhibition features furniture pieces and clocks from the late eighteenth century in Baroque style, and the Neo-Baroque clocks. The furniture décor employs Boule’s inlay technique. The showcased exhibits belong to the Lithuanian National Art Museum.  

 

André Charles Boulle 1642–1732

André Charles Boulle was one of France’s leading furniture and clock-case designers, christened by his contemporaries as ‘the most skilful artisan in Paris.’ He was born in 1642 in Paris into a family of cabinetmaker. He started his career as a painter, later he trained and worked as an architect, mosaic and bronze worker, and engraver. At the age of twenty two he was a well established artisan. At the age of 24 he became a master cabinetmaker and achieved the title of cabinetmaker and sculptor to Louis XIV at the age of 30. For the Palais du Louvre and, later, Versailles, he produced furniture, clocks, chandeliers, etc. He was also a passionate collector. He felt that masterpieces by the ancient masters inspired new ideas for his own work.

André Charles Boulle was active as a cabinetmaker until the age of 76. In 1720 his collection was destroyed by fire in Paris, his loss was immense. After the fire he returned to his studio and his work and swore to direct it until death. He recreated his works, including the ones lost to fire in drawings, and published a very rare for the time illustrated book of engravings.

After his death his estate and the cabinet making trade passed over to his sons, André Charles, 1685–1745), known as „Boulle-de Seve“ and Charles Joseph, (died 1754). The tradition perfected by André Charles Boulle was handed down to the famous artisans until the nineteenth century.

 

Inlay Technique by André Charles Boulle

Boulle gave his name to marquetry technique used for adornment of furniture and clock-cases. The materials used were veneer sheets in different colour, also, tortoiseshell and brass. Thin wood sheets or sheets of shell and brass were glued together and a selected decorative pattern was cut through all the layers with a fretsaw. The layers of the cut out pieces were separated again and fitted in different ways, for example, the piece with brass-in-tortoiseshell marquetry was known as ‘premier partie’, while the tortoiseshell inlaid in brass was known as ‘contre partie’, o reverse. Thus using these two parts, two cabinets or two clock-cases could be veneered, one with the ‘first part’ and the other, with its reverse, or both types could be used in the same piece, for its inside and outside respectively. To achieve yet more striking decorative effect, brass was engraved with different patterns and the tortoiseshell was coloured. The remaining undecorated parts of the piece of furniture were always veneered with ebony.

The technique of tortoiseshell and brass marquetry arrived in France through the tenth century Italian artist Marie de Medici, but it was André Charles Boulle who developed it to its ultimate in the seventeenth century. The Boulle technique perfectly reflected the period’s predilection for sumptuous colours and luxury. For veneering furniture, Boulle often utilised complex patterns created by the designer Jean Berain. Partially modified, Bull’s marquetry technique remained in fashion as late as the nineteenth century.